writing.

A Whole New World

This post is part of the A to Z Challenge. Each post will be associated with a letter of the alphabet with the theme ‘Soundtracks from my life’.

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“A Whole New World” is a song from Disney‘s 1992 animated feature film Aladdin and it’s sung by Regina Belle and Peabo Bryson.

I was 15 years old when the movie Aladdin came out and I immediately fell in love with this song.

In 1992, my family had a blue swing outside my house. It started its life as a grey swing and was later repainted blue and it was also relocated to the front porch after spending part of its lifein the side garden.

At the time, it was normal for us – my younger brother (who was 4 years old), my younger sister (she was 11 years old) and I to sit on the swing, after dinner, to sing all our favourite songs at the top of our lungs, even if the words were wrong. It was our version of going to the pub and singing karaoke. Of course, our favourite songs consisted mostly of tracks from the Disney movies.

When we sang “A Whole New World”, my younger sister and I would make sure that the swing would go extra high, like a flying carpet, and proceed to take turns being Jasmine and Aladdin. We didn’t care if the neighbours could hear our caterwauling. I always sat on the left of my brother while my sister sat on his right. My little brother was cradled in between us as we reached the high notes. Thinking back, those were good times. The best of times. We were carefree and singing our hearts out.

I’ve been thinking a lot about those times recently because changes have come galloping into our lives – my younger sister will be leaving the country to start a new chapter in her life and my little brother will be a father, much earlier than he anticipated. Changes that I’m not quite ready to embrace because I move at tortoise speed while they’ve sped on ahead, leaving me in their dust.

I miss the us that we were.

It’s been many years since we sat on that blue swing to sing together but suddenly, I wish we could. For old time’s sake.

Lovely story to go with that song. I listen to that song a lot still, due to being a kindergarten teacher, and it still makes me smile. I can sympathize with the oddness of one’s siblings rushing forward into adulthood!

It’s strange right, Alex, to realise that your siblings, the ones who made you annoyed and fought over ice cream with, are now setting up homes and will be changing diapers ;P I still can’t wrap my brain around that LOL

It’s funny how little songs from our childhood remind us of so much, huh? A very good friend of mine recently died in a car crash, and when I heard the news, all I could think about was The Lion King, since that was our favorite movie when we were growing up.

What a lovely memory!
I often think I should write my memories based on certain songs that have represented certain parts of my life. Perhaps I should stop thinking and just write them!
I am in the A-Z Challenge too and enjoying it. I hope you do too. 🙂

Visiting from A/Z; what a sweet story from your growing up years. I bet it was fun to be together like that singing on that porch swing; bet your parents enjoyed hearing you guys do it too! I hope you enjoy the rest of the challenge!

What a touching post! I can’t relate to the music, but yes, to the thoughts of a childhood gone, as we continue our adult lives and go in different directions. Thanks to my father, we have a lot of film and photo material from when we grew up, and that’s a treasure to have.
I like your A to Z theme, music plays such a big role in our lives!